The SEAL Sensibility

From a member of the elite force, an inside look at the brutal training and secret work of the commandos who got Osama bin Laden.

By

Eric Greitens

Updated May 7, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

At Camp Pendleton in California, where I did my initial weapons training, we must have fired thousands of rounds at practice-range targets printed with the likeness of Osama bin Laden. To take the real shot, the one that brought down bin Laden, was the dream of every Navy SEAL.

The man who got that chance in Pakistan last weekend was a member of the SEAL community's most elite unit. He and the others who descended on bin Laden's lair would have put in relentless practice for weeks beforehand—assaulting mock compounds,...